This is mandatory listening and watching material for understanding the design methodology and ideas behind the Metro interface in Windows 8 (and thus, Windows Phone 7). All this sounds great in theory, and Jensen Harris, one of the minds behind Metro, is clearly passionate about it - and I love people who are passionate about their work. It's just that to me, the Metro UI doesn't seem to work very well for actual work. I want window management! I'm taking all this into account for an article on Metro in the Developer Preview. Stay tuned.

most people (yes most) simply do not and never will understand how to use a traditional desktop effectively.

This is a UI to allow non-computer users to actually use a computer without being nervous.

I don't buy this at all. For one, no-one who was born in the last 20-30 years are afraid of computers. Computers are a part of everyday life now, they're not mystery boxes that only scientists in white lab-coats can operate and understand. They may not be experts but they sure know enough to operate a computer and not "be afraid" of it.
Secondly people aren't idiots. This mentality that most people (which usually mean "people not as smart as me", with smart being a very subjective metric) can not, and do not want, to learn just bugs me to no end.
It's this kind of condescending attitude that turn people off and that make them consider "computer users" arrogant bastards.
My wife has no problem using a computer (and she grew up on poverty) and neither has my daughter. Granted there's obviously things that can be improved but this whole "people are afraid of computers and we must make computers idiot-simple" thing is nonsense.

I don't buy this at all. For one, no-one who was born in the last 20-30 years are afraid of computers. Computers are a part of everyday life now, they're not mystery boxes that only scientists in white lab-coats can operate and understand. They may not be experts but they sure know enough to operate a computer and not "be afraid" of it.

This is a viewpoint I shared for a long time. I shared it because I wrote software for people like me and you. I now work in a job where I have to build software for "normal" people much of the time, and my views have changed drastically...

This is from wikipedia:

A study published in the journal Computers in human behavior was conducted between 1992 and 1994 surveying first-year college students across various countries.[2] The overall percentage of the 3,392[3] students who responded with high-level technophobic fears was 29%.[3] In comparison, Japan had 58% high-level technophobes, India had 82%, and Mexico had 53%.[3]

A published report in 2000 stated that roughly 85 to 90 percent of new employees at an organization may be uncomfortable with new technology, and are technophobic to some degree.[4]

It's not just my opinion, there is hard science behind my reasoning. A lot of people are scared of computers - that is just fact.

Secondly people aren't idiots. This mentality that most people (which usually mean "people not as smart as me", with smart being a very subjective metric) can not, and do not want, to learn just bugs me to no end.

I never said they didn't want to learn. They are scared. That is not the same thing. They are scared because they don't like feeling stupid... If you give someone something and keep telling them "this is easy, anyone can do it!" and they find out through repeated trial and error it ISN'T easy, they think they are either stupid for not getting it or that everyone is lying to them. Well most people feel the former, while the truth is really the later.

I'm not arrogant. I don't say this because I feel superior in some way to most people. Understanding the nuts and bolts of how a computer and it's software work should be reserved for people that need to know these things, or at least want to know them. We should at least recognize the fact that lots of very intelligent people simply don't use them effectively. It isn't because they are stupid, it's because they aren't designed right. Anything that is a step in the direction of making computers easier to "get" for the average person is a good thing.

So you think that general-purpose computing has no future and that people should have to learn several interfaces over the course of their life to get stuff done, part of which you consider too complicated yourself ?

I agree that there's a problem with current GUIs, but I don't think that removing complexity altogether is the solution. Complexity is needed sometimes. What must disappear is unneeded complexity, or complication, and this is a very different problem.

Electric switches can be used to make plane cockpits, that are too complex for untrained peoples. Does it mean that we should get rid of them in every consumer device ?

A study published in the journal Computers in human behavior was conducted between 1992 and 1994 surveying first-year college students across various countries.[2] The overall percentage of the 3,392[3] students who responded with high-level technophobic fears was 29%.[3] In comparison, Japan had 58% high-level technophobes, India had 82%, and Mexico had 53%.[3]

A published report in 2000 stated that roughly 85 to 90 percent of new employees at an organization may be uncomfortable with new technology, and are technophobic to some degree.[4]

That study is 17 years old. Perhaps you might find something more up-to-date and then this would lend more weight to your point of view.

Hard science that is by now almost 20 years old. The people I'm talking about would barely have been born at that point in time.

If you give someone something and keep telling them "this is easy, anyone can do it!" and they find out through repeated trial and error it ISN'T easy, they think they are either stupid for not getting it or that everyone is lying to them.

This isn't a computer problem, it's a teaching problem.

It isn't because they are stupid, it's because they aren't designed right.